Just Another Camping Trip
by BML Hillen-Keene
Summary: AU. Jeff Tracy is conned into helping out at a week long camp for abused, neglected and foster children, by Lady Penelope. What surprises lay in store for him? All the brothers are present and accounted for. Enjoy. Still don't own them though.
1. Chapter 1

**Just Another Camping Trip**

_A/N: Not what any of you are thinking, but the story is pretty self explanatory, so I shall not delve into its inner workings. All you need to know is that it is AU, and very different, and that I will try to portray each of the boys equally. However, if I do manage to focus more on John and Gordon I do apologise. But I like them. I like them lots._

_Warnings: Mentions of abuse (Many different kinds), Special Educational Needs, though not in an educational setting… kind of, bad guys and things that go 'BOOM', and of course much OOCness. Oh, and I messed with the ages, sorry. So I want no one complaining to me about anything that seems odd about the characters. It's an AU!_

**1.**

To tell the truth I don't know how I had managed to allow myself to be talked into this. This being an annual camping trip organised for underprivileged children and those in foster care or orphanages. My late wife, Lucy, of ten years had attended every single year. That was fine, normally there were a dozen things I needed to do for my company, and it gave her a chance to get off our Island for a week and do what she loved most. Work with children.

Not that I was against children. I happened to like them; we had had a daughter of our own; who normally accompanied Lucy to this particular event. But the idea of being surrounded by so many made my nerves fray, actually being around them? Well…

"Jeff!"

I turned, inwardly cringing from the onslaught of pink that invaded my sight. Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, my wife's sister, who despite the fact that we were no longer really family, what with my wife and daughter having died two years ago in an accident, had continued to push herself into my life in a way that only a lady of the Creighton-Ward family knew how.

If I had never fallen in love with Lucy, I would have fallen for Penny. I knew that. I think it was the pink that put me off. My dear sister in law had an unfortunate obsession with the colour.

"Penny." I greeted.

"I'm so glad you could come Jeff. We've been terribly short handed this year, and I would have hated to send some of the boy's home, not when they look forward to this all year." she smiled at me.

I looked around at the children, all of varying ages, most excited; talking happily to people they had most likely met last year. I knew what this camp meant to some of these children. Lucy had lamented the fact that some of them only had this single week as a reprieve from a year of abuse and neglect. It was also a time when the social workers involved could assess some of the children, talk to them in a safe environment and maybe help them out of that life of abuse.

I nodded to Penny, who beamed at me in that typically English fashion of a half smile that told so much, yet so little. I had learned it was best to just let that kind of smile wash over me. Fighting it was useless. It was how she had gotten me to agree to this. The smile told me plainly that she knew I would agree to whatever she had planned, whether I wanted to or not.

But again, being English she would never let on just what her hidden agenda was. All I knew was that there was one. I'm glad she isn't into business or I would have my hands full. But like Lucy, Penny was more inclined to spend her time with the less fortunate that herself, working as a part time child psychologist/Social worker, and organising events like this.

"So where do you want me?" I asked her.

"The group you'll be leading this week is just over here. We're starting to split them into their teams now. I thought you might like to get started. You never were much good in a crowd of small people like this." she teased.

I looked at her, eyebrows raised. "Small people?" I asked.

She smiled demurely. "That's what they are Jeff dear. People. They just happen to be smaller than we are." she took my arm and began to direct me towards the small group of boys I would be leading, filling me in along the way. "I've given you Scott and Virgil, they're brothers, their father is an army man, so they're used to rules and structure. But there's a history of physical abuse. And John, he's very quiet, you'll hardly get a word out of him, just remember not to raise your voice to him, he reacts badly. Then Gordon, he had ADHD, so he will tend to be a little energetic, but normally he's ok so long as you give him something to do. And lastly there's little Alan, he's an angel, you shouldn't have any trouble with him."

"Five of them? They all the same age?" I asked, already beginning to dread the idea of this. How could I work with a group of boys who obviously had things wrong with them? I wasn't qualified for this.

"No, Scott's the oldest, almost twelve. Virgil and John are both ten, I believe John is a month or so older than Virgil. Gordon is eight (but he'll tell you he's nine), and Alan is seven. They're all good boys Jeff. They won't give you any trouble. I know this is strange for you, so I steered clear of the more challenging cases." She smiled at me again. "Thank you again Jeff."

With that one sentence she had made it so I couldn't gracefully bow out no matter how much I wanted to. I stifled a sigh and let her lead me through the throngs of children to the five she had picked for me.

"Here we are. Boy's, this is Jeff Tracy. He's going to be your team leader this week."

I looked at the array of boys in front of me. The one who I assumed was Scott, a tall boy wit mousy brown hair, snapped to attention, not in the completely military fashion I recognised from my days in the air force, but not entirely unlike it either. The other mousy haired one, who was standing close and a little behind Scott, I supposed was Virgil. The positioning seemed somehow natural for them, knowing what little I did about them. My eyes moved on. The older blond haired boy I would guess was John; he was sitting quietly on the ground, not looking up, though he did close the book resting on his lap and place it on the ground beside him. The red haired one I pegged as Gordon, though he was being surprisingly still for someone with ADHD, just fighting as he stood, shifting from foot to foot slowly. Which left the last boy, also blond haired, to be Alan, standing beside Gordon and smiling disarmingly at me, and I instantly knew I would have to watch out for that. It reminded me of my daughter's smile, the one she used to flash when she really wanted something she knew I wouldn't give her.

"Hello boys." I greeted.

"Hello sir/Mr Tracy." came the array of answers.

Penelope smiled charmingly at us all. "Well, I'll just leave you boys to get acquainted. Here's your pack Jeff with all the things you can do this week. Have fun." She handed me a white envelope before leaving me standing there facing five boys, each with varying degrees of wariness and interest on their faces. Biting back another sigh I dredged up a smile for them and opened the envelope. Time to see what I had really let myself in for.

_A/N: I know, I know… but I'm only setting the scene. Forgive me please! Lol. Naw, just review. I'd appreciate it. I know, Jeff POV. I know nothing about Jeff, nothing. But this could prove… interesting… I think so anyway. Now Review!_


	2. Chapter 2

**2.**

First item on the list was to find a place to pitch our tents. Mine was a simple one man tent that was to be set up next to their six person one. Scott, Virgil and Alan, who I gathered had all been here before had immediately started into the mess of poles and fabric that would be their tent when I had give them the go ahead. Gordon followed along willingly enough and the four of them soon had things well underway. Which left John standing beside me. Figuring he would probably join the others if I looked busy putting up my own tent, and honestly not knowing what to say to the quiet boy I gathered up my own tent poles and cover and made my way to a spot not too far from where they were setting up. Boy's liked their privacy, especially on camping trips. I always remembered myself and my best friend pitching our tents away from the adult's. Still close enough so we could get to them if we needed to, but far enough away to give us the sense of adventure we had craved as young boys.

My tent was significantly closer than that. I didn't know what these boys would get up to at night, so I had to be close enough to hear them if they started wandering about. What I didn't realise, until I had set my heap of tent poles down, was that John had followed me silently, his book tucked under one arm, holding the pins I would need to keep the tent cover from flying off. He didn't look at me, just held out the pins for me to take. I accepted them. "Thank you." I said, wondering if I'd get a reaction.

What had Penny said about this one? Quiet, wouldn't get a word out of him. But would I even get a reaction. So far I don't think the boy had looked at me once. There are only two types of people I know in my business who don't make eye contact, people who are lying, or people who haven't thought their business pitch out thoroughly enough. Now I know John wasn't either of these, but they were the only kinds I recognised, I didn't know how to handle him. My only instruction was to remember not to raise my voice to him. How exactly did that help in normal conversation?

"Why aren't you helping the others?" I asked, and inwardly cringed when I realised it sounded like an accusation.

John didn't so much as twitch, though his arms did curl up round his book a little more, telling me I had made him nervous. Not exactly what I was going for.

"Hey, John!" I heard Scott call, and turned a little to look. "You're good at this, come give us a hand would you?" Scott was watching me warily, obviously taking on the role of protector for the younger boys, even though I had yet to actually do anything that could be perceived as a threat. Or maybe that was just how boys like Scott acted. I would have to remember to ask Penny about it later. Glancing at John I saw his head had turned and he was obviously looking at Scott. After a long moment he nodded and moved away from me.

Deciding it might be best to just let them get on with it I turned back to my own tent. Though I could still feel Scott's eyes on me for some time after that. It took a good hour to get the tents up. Well, to get mine up. It had been a long time since I had last been camping; let me tell you, putting up a tent is never easy, especially without an instruction manual. Though John had returned to my side and began silently helping me out. The other's hung back; I could hear Gordon and Alan snickering away in that way boys have when they see an adult struggling with something. I hadn't said anything, after all, they had just put up their own tent, they shouldn't have to help me with mine.

Finally it was all done and I rubbed my hands together briskly, pulling the rolled up wad of papers from my pocket. One task down and an hundred and one left. Or so it seemed. Reading through my options. I looked at the boys, all watching me expectantly (though I get the feeling some where looking at me with different expectations than others), except John, who kept his head down and eyes averted.

"Now, seeing as I've never done this before," I gestured towards the whole camp, "you'll have to help me out here. Firstly let's lay down some ground rules."

Gordon and Alan groaned, and I made a mental note to keep an eye on them.

"Now you have every right to negotiate any of these rules with me, but in the end we will have a set of rules, and you will follow them. First one, no misbehaving; I don't mind any of you playing about and having fun, but let's try not to cross the line into downright bad behaviour, ok. Second, no wandering off unless you let me know where your going, and that means coming to me and telling me directly, not leaving a message with anyone else. And thirdly, no bad language, I don't appreciate it and I won't tolerate it. Any questions?"

"What if I got bit by a snake? Could I curse then?" Alan questioned a cheeky smile on his face.

"No." I replied

Alan had obviously been expecting this answer and a practiced look of mock disappointed fell on his face.

"Sir," My attention was drawn to Scott. "What exactly counts as 'bad behaviour'?" he asked.

I considered the question; it was a good one actually. I hadn't really considered what exactly counted as bad behaviour. Mine was more of a generalised view. Looking at Scott, noting he was standing tall and straight, in that military attention again, it struck me that I would need to start thinking about things in a lot more depth than I would normally and set appropriate boundaries, or this boy wouldn't relax and have any fun, which was what I assumed was supposed to happen this week.

Why had I let Penny talk me into this?

"Let's start with no fighting, or name calling, or staying up all night." I answered slowly, before nodding to myself in decision.

"What if someone picks a fight with us first?" Alan asked.

"Then you come and get me and I'll deal with it." I replied.

"But what if we can't?" the boy persisted.

"All you have to do is walk away." I told him firmly.

"What if we get kidnapped? Can we fight then?" Gordon questioned.

I couldn't be sure whether he said that jokingly or not. "You aren't going to be kidnapped." I told him, shaking my head.

"But what if we were?" Alan piped up in Gordon's defence.

Sighing I held up my hand. "Enough. None of you are going to be kidnapped, or bitten by snakes or anything else you can come up with. Those are the rules. And if anyone picks a fight with you then you come get me or one of the other adults and we'll deal with it. Got it?"

Alan and Gordon gave somewhat sullen nods. I had spoiled their fun. I noticed the other three boys visibly relax as I went back to consulting the piece of paper. Now, if I had been heading a group of boys without the backgrounds these boys obviously had, I probably wouldn't have been having the problem coming to terms with this week as I currently was. What if I did something wrong and drove one of them off the edge? Lucy had told me horror stories of children from abusive backgrounds, how sometimes a mere word, could send them into some sort of flashback. I wasn't qualified to deal with something like that if it happened.

I cleared my throat. "We have three options for this afternoon's activities. So we take a vote. Number one is water sports--" Gordon's hand snapped up into the air when I said that, and I could see he was barely containing his excitement at the prospect. "Listen to the rest of them first would you?" I asked, smiling a little at him.

He lowered his hand with a blush, reaching over to poke Alan in the arm for snickering at him.

"Right, so we have water sports, second choice is; a nature hike. Third choice is a series of team building games." I looked at each of them. "So, which would you prefer?"

"Water sports!" Gordon demanded, followed shortly by Alan, who echoed Gordon's choice.

I looked to the other boys. Scott shared a look with his brother, who shrugged. Scott looked at me, squaring his shoulders a little. "Water sports." he confirmed.

That left John, though I knew we would be going to the water. "John?" I asked.

John just shrugged, and I took it as confirmation. I probably wouldn't get a lot out of him. "Okay, get on your swimming things and grab your towels and we'll head down to the lake." I told them, making my own way to my tent. It was a hot day, in the middle of summer; it couldn't hurt to get my feet wet.

x

Two hours later I made my way along the sand area around the edge of the lake, having entrusted three of my five charges to one of camp activities leaders. I had spent the previous two hours answering the continuous calls for attention from Gordon and Alan. And I have to say, it wasn't all that difficult really, and I was impressed by Gordon, the boy seemed to have a natural ability in the water, and was happily teaching Alan everything he knew. But his energy wasn't transferable, and I had eventually turned away from them to observe the game of water volleyball Scott and Virgil had started. Occasionally one of them would send the ball spinning towards John, who was sitting on the wooden pier, and every time I was sure it was going to hit him and knock him flying. But every time, even though I'm sure he never once looked, he managed to hit the ball back to them.

Eventually Gordon and Alan had joined them, along with a few other children. I floated a little bit away from them and watched, content to just make sure none of them drowned.

Then the activities leader came to ask how many wanted to go caking and canoeing. Gordon was gone in a flash, bouncing on the balls of his feet beside the speaking man. Alan followed soon after, and after a quick conversation with his brother, Scott did the same. Virgil climbed up to the pier and sat beside John, whispering something to him, and upon receiving a nod he turned to look at me. "We're going to sit on the beach to watch."

"That's fine." I nodded, deciding I would get out of the water now anyway.

Which brings me to the small sandy part on the edge of the lake that everyone referred to as 'The Beach', in search of my remaining two charges. They were fairly easy to spot, being the only two not running around playing games. They sat near the water.

Making my way over I noticed that Virgil was drawing something. Curious, and because I rather enjoyed seeing pictures drawn by children I went closer. I was not the drawings that interested me, it was the explanations behind the pictures I liked hearing. I remember my daughter would bring me a newly drawn and coloured picture, of which I could normally make nothing out. She never had any artistic talent, but that never stopped her. But her explanations for just what exactly that dark blue blob beside the bright yellow blob was, was always the highlight of the moment.

"Boys." I greeted when I was still a few feet away.

Two heads swung towards me.

"Sir." Virgil responded.

I sat down in the sand beside them, studying them both. I noticed Virgil twisting his pencil, and wondered just why I made him so nervous. Surely he knew they would never let anyone join the camp who would hurt him. "I noticed you were drawing," the twisting got worse and I wondered why. "Could I maybe see it?"

The look he gave me then was one of abject shock, like he had never expected that question in a million years. "Emm… ok." he said, handing me the little art pad.

I accepted it and looked at the picture. It took me a good few seconds to realise I was not looking at what I had been expecting, which was something along the lines of stick figures, or crudely drawn people playing in the lake. What I was looking at was a half drawn masterpiece, that was well beyond what a normal ten year old could do, at least I thought it was, and even I know enough about ten year olds drawings to know this was better than most.

"This is excellent." I told him, still looking at the picture. Finally I handed it back, surprised to see the shocked expression had melted into a thoughtful one.

"You're not like my brother thinks you are." he said finally.

I frowned in puzzlement. "How do you mean."

Virgil looked away for a moment, obviously considering whether or not he should say anything more. Finally he looked back at me. "To Scott there are three kinds of people. People like us, people like father, and everyone else. He thinks you fall into 'people like father' category."

I blinked as I tried to work out just how I had managed to get lumped in with abusive fathers. "How does that work?" I asked him, honestly confused.

"The Army. Scott says your part of the army." he explained to me, quietly.

That made a kind of sense. "I was part of the air-force." I told Virgil. "But I left it a long time ago."

Virgil shrugged, returning to his drawing. "Scott doesn't see any difference. He thinks if you're part of the army you're like father."

Simple children's logic, and irrefutable in their eyes.

"And what do you think I am?" I asked, hoping he wouldn't just lump me in where his brother did.

Virgil paused in his drawing and thought about it. "I don't think of people like my brother does. But you didn't laugh at my drawing, and you gave it back without ripping it up. So I know your not like father."

I sat there for a few minutes more before getting to my feet. I think I maybe needed to talk to Penny about this. I was just about to leave when a soft spoken question in a voice I didn't recognise asked.

"What about the rules?"

I looked back to see John had turned his head, and I was hard pressed to tell whether he was actually looking at me or not, his hair swept across his eyes, blocking them from sight, but I had a feeling he was. It took me a moment to realise just what he was referring to, and when I did I couldn't help the laugh it brought to the surface.

The boy had a point. If I wanted to know where they were all going to be, shouldn't I extend the same courtesy in return? "I'm going to speak to Lady Creighton-Ward." I told him.

He nodded before turning back to watch the goings on, on the lake.

Now to find Penny and ask her about whether or not it was wise to have me looking after Scott if he obviously didn't trust me.

_Now, for those of you who I know enjoy picking holes in things let me just say a few things first. Firstly, I know more about dealing with children with emotional problems than I let on in this story, but I'm telling it from Jeff's POV, who for the purposes of this story knows nothing and as such will sometime's misread things or peg them wrong. Secondly, Gordon's ADHD, I happen to know someone with it that acts just like that, so I've based Gordon's actions on them. Also, the plot will begin to move along properly in the next chapter, and we will also find out some more about our boys from Lady. P as well._

_Please Review! _


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